Health Watch: Almost anyone can improve health through swimming

Monday

The benefits of adding swimming to your exercise routine, increased tobacco-control measures and how to recognize the warning signs of stroke.

Add swimming to your exercise routine

The health benefits of swimming can be experienced by nearly anyone no matter what their age or health condition. Some of the benefits swimming has to offer:

- Tone your whole body: Water's resistance - 600 to 700 times that of air - makes it a superior medium for raising metabolism and endurance, making swimming a great way to lose weight.

- Great exercise for every condition: Humans are buoyant and weigh 1/10th less in water. Many people who've stopped exercising because of injuries or strain on bones or joints, like knees, can safely swim. Swimming is low-impact because it is not weight-bearing and warm water helps to relax muscles stiffened by arthritis and other conditions. In addition to swimming, aquatic exercise programs can offer no-impact options for weight lifting, walking and even running.

- Increase circulation and improve blood pressure: Swimming provides an effective workout for the heart, lungs and muscles. Because it's low impact, your heart rate while swimming is lower than it is when participating in higher-impact activities.

- Relax and reduce stress: Swimming forces you to regulate your breathing and allows more oxygen to flow into muscles. Being enveloped by the warm water facilitates a calming and meditative feeling. -- ARAcontent

Report: More states enact tobacco-control measures in 2007

According to a report by the American Lung Association, a growing number of states are making public places and workplaces smoke-free and raising tobacco taxes.

Five states adopted comprehensive laws prohibiting smoking in workplaces, restaurants and bars in 2007. Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia have passed the clean-air laws. Eight states passed increases in their tobacco taxes in 2007, bringing the average state cigarette tax up to $1.11 a pack.

The association tracks the passage of legislation and other state policies related to tobacco control and prevention, including tobacco taxes, youth access and funding for tobacco control programs.

Health Tip

May is American Stroke Month. The American Stroke Association says these are the warning signs of stroke:

- Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body.

- Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding.

- Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes.

- Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination.

- Sudden, severe headache with no known cause.

Learning to recognize the warning signs and acting quickly when they occur can mean the difference in surviving a stroke and minimizing long-term disability, or being physically and mentally devastated or dying from it.

Number to Know: 31

Although the teen pregnancy rate is at its lowest in years, 31 percent of teenage girls get pregnant at least once before they reach age 20.

May 7, the National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, is a campaign geared toward teens to avoid too-early pregnancy and parenthood.

On this day, teens will be encouraged to visit www.StayTeen.org and take a quiz on what they would do in risky sexual situations. For more information about this campaign, visit the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy Web site at www.thenationalcampaign.org/national.

Children’s Health

How to protect kids from biting bugs, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics:

- Don't use scented soaps, perfumes or hair sprays on your child.

- Avoid areas where insects nest or congregate, such as stagnant pools of water, uncovered foods and gardens where flowers are in bloom.

- To remove a visible stinger from skin, gently scrape it off horizontally with a credit card or your fingernail.

- Combination sunscreen/insect repellent products should be avoided because sunscreen needs to be reapplied every two hours, but the insect repellent should not be reapplied.

- The benefits of DEET reach a peak at a concentration of 30 percent, the maximum concentration currently recommended for infants and children. DEET should not be used on children under 2 months of age.

Senior Health

A recent survey of American adults suggests that as many as 10 percent of those between 50 and 64 years of age and 8 percent of those older than 65 tanned indoors.

Researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia analyzed data about indoor tanning behaviors collected in 2005 as part of an annual health survey of 29,394 adults.

“Our results are concerning, especially given the increasing rates of skin cancer, including the deadliest form—melanoma,” said Carolyn J. Heckman, Ph.D., a behavioral researcher at Fox Chase. “Ninety percent of all skin cancers are thought to be associated with ultraviolet radiation, which is emitted during indoor tanning. There is a myth that indoor tanning is safer than sunbathing, but this is not the case.”